Off Limits
Author: Auto-Alchemechanicist (miss_auto1621)
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Characters/Pairing: Edward Elric & Winry Rockbell
Prompt: Greed
Word Count: 1,383
Rating: K+
Genre: Friendship/General
Disclaimer: Arakawa owns the whole thing. I just like playing with her characters in a way that they don't get hurt (too much).
Author's Notes: Dedicated to Vanessa for sparking the idea, and to my beta causmicfire! Somewhat mangaverse. Excuse some language. Mostly Winry-centric. Hint hint on EdxWinry.
Part of LiveJournal's 7 Deadly Sins challenge!
Summary: Winry never realized there could be other girls out there that went crazy for Ed's automail.

Winry tinkered with an important piece of automail through the ruckus of Mr. Garfield's machines. She measured as accurately as she could to avoid the mistake she had committed with her most recent metal prosthetic. She missed the height of a leg by a centimeter, which was something she never did, and knew (she just knew) there was an error with it. Now, attached to her work, she wished for no distractions.

It wasn't a problem to work in an environment that suddenly caused a commotion to spread around the city of Rush Valley every time something new and metallic appeared. It was difficult, however, to concentrate when the loud mouth that was Edward arrived for maintenance. Oh, and he caused such a commotion.

"Get your damn hands off me!" he would yell, as the many mechanics would ignore his cry and rush to the boy they recalled had wonderful automail.

"Winry, your little friends are here," Garfield announced with a small squeal. Even he got excited, sometimes about the automail, others…not so much about automail.

Winry didn't have to be told of this, since she knew quite well when to identify Ed and Al. "Thanks," she said anyway, and walked toward the front of the shop.

"Geez, I can't come in peace because everyone starts attacking me all of a sudden," Ed complained as he and Al approached Winry. Edward was finishing getting dressed after being stripped down to his boxers so the obsessive mechanics could drool over his automail.

"Brother, you're making a big deal out of this," Al said before his brother made a face and spat back that he wasn't making a big deal.

Winry sighed as she greeted them and led them into the shop.

"What is it this time?" she asked as she eyed the places where her precious automail was attached.

"I was just coming in for some maintenance, but because those idiots attacked me, my fingers got wrecked," Ed explained, obviously trying to sound innocent.

"You never come for maintenance, Ed," she pointed out as she brought her wrench up so he could see it, making him flinch.

"Brother," Al began with that hint of irritation. He didn't like it when his brother lied.

"Okay, fine," Ed said as he slowly took off his red coat and right glove. Some pieces of the fingers were missing and a piece of the forearm was chipped and broken.

Winry's expression was full of agony. To relieve herself, she let her wrench hit Edward before demanding to know what had happened.

"Brother got in a fight," Al explained as he tried keep his brother from passing out.

"Figures," Winry murmured as she walked towards a closet with spare prosthetics. "What's his stupid reason for having a fight?"

"They called me little!" Ed yelled at her. She didn't understand why Ed lost control of himself sometimes and let him know that one of these days, he'd end up getting himself killed in one of those brawls.

"What was he fighting about this time?"

"Who had the better automail."

Winry's expression softened. "Really?" she asked. "With who?"

"Some guys from the military that started showing off their automail in front of him," Al continued.

"Well, I was showing them who was boss," he began before huffing, "Calling my automail crap."

"What?" Winry asked.

"They called my automail crap," Ed repeated.

Winry's expression darkened with anger. "You better have kicked their asses."

Ed simply smirked and let her get to work. 'I left them looking like crap,' he thought.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Winry worked intently on Edward's damaged automail arm. For one thing, she was glad that the brothers were with her because she knew they were staying out of trouble. She didn't know what they were doing in detail, so she was glad to have them to herself for a while. It was a selfish thought, but it wasn't every day that they came to visit. Her thoughts shifted from Edward to Alphonse and back to Ed as she worked, pondering over the fact that Ed had defended his automail's quality. Deep down, she knew he appreciated her efforts and tried to take care of his mail. She even wondered if he wrecked it on purpose. As she had these thoughts, she realized that she had ran out of the bolts she used for his fingers and had to get more from the various jars she kept in her shelf.

That's when she saw what was going on. It wasn't her thing to check out what was happening in front of the shop, but Ed and Al caught her attention. Actually, they were getting a lot attention, feminine attention.

"Oh, I heard you have great automail!"

"Can we see it?"

"Is this it?"

The various squeals from the girls were annoying Ed, forcing him to give a fake smile.

The girls were also inspecting Al, but most of them were led back to Ed, who was having a hard time keeping his personal space to himself. He considered getting back into the shop, but the girls suddenly caught his arms. What the hell were they doing? What the hell were they going to do to him?

In a matter of seconds, the group of girls was trying to get a piece of Ed, or his fake automail. Al was trying to help his brother, but the girls seemed to beat him and managed to crowd him so he wouldn't get near his brother. They suddenly made him look like a defenseless kitten.

That annoyed Winry. Only she could go crazy over Ed's automail. Only she could inspect him. Only she could strip him of his clothes. No one else. And no one could make Al look like a kitten!

Setting the jar of bolts down on the shelf with a loud CLANK, she walked towards the front door of the shop with her wrench firmly gripped in her hand. She didn't even need to formulate a plan to get through the girls. She just simply walked up to the ones that had crowded Al and gave them a nasty look. They all backed away and let Al stand. Edward was more difficult to get. Winry noticed some of the girls clung to him as he tried to get himself free from them. He had gotten tired of them the moment they began to squeal.

"Hey!" Winry yelled as she placed her hands on her hips.

The girls quieted down and turned to look at Winry. They knew her and were not going to let her have the boy with wonderful automail.

"He's ours!"
"Get your own!" They all began.

Winry's mouth curled up bitterly. There's? Ha! They obviously didn't know anything about her patients. Edward simply blushed at those comments. He was Winry's and everyone knew that, even if they did act like rabid girls. He bet even the rabid girls knew he was Winry's patient, but they were just trying to push her buttons.

"Yours?" Winry asked indignantly. "Yours?" Winry walked up to the crowd of girls, who had gotten defensive, and stared at them. She gave them her nastiest look and as they all glared at her, they began to move closer to Ed. Using the force of her strong arms, Winry pushed the girls out of her way and got Edward out in pieces. They had all managed to detach the spares, which pissed Winry off enough to throw her wrench at them. She hugged Ed possessively and stared at them, as if she were a mother bear protecting her young.

"This one's off limits, girls," Winry said. She made Al carry the spares as she dragged Ed into the shop, not allowing Al to help her with him. She set Ed on one of the chairs and walked over to the front door where the group of girls was still standing and waiting with venomous stares. Winry held the door to her work place.

"Shop's closed, girls," she said with a mocking tone. "Come back another day."

And with that she closed the door to her shop and could finally concentrate on Ed's mail.

Out of all those obsessed girls that wanted his automail, Ed was glad that Winry was the gear head in charge of it all.

Well, somebody's jealous. This is a stubborn idea that sprouted when Vanessa and I were chatting. I hope everyone liked it because I enjoyed writing it! Tell me what you think about it. R/R,plz. Support is love!

-Auto-